World News

BAQOUBA, Iraq - It's Staff Sgt. Edgar Covarrubias' second Fourth of July in Iraq. No family barbecue, no fireworks, but Covarrubias says he'll call his mom, wife and kids to share the day anyway.

As of Friday, July 4, 2008, at least 4,113 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated an official of Iraq's biggest Shiite party Friday in the southern city of Basra, police said.

PARIS (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was given a hero's welcome on Friday in France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy had made her release a foreign policy priority and thousands had campaigned for her freedom for years.

LONDON - Britain's High Court has ruled that Pringles are not a potato snack, and thus are not subject to value-added tax.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Netherlands will ban Iranian students from studying nuclear technology, a source of tension between Iran and world powers, at its universities, the government said Friday.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Video recorded during the rescue of 15 rebel hostages shows them filing grim-faced toward the helicopter that would fly them to safety, then hugging one another and crying with joy after they are aloft and realize they are free.

PARAMARIBO, Suriname - The long-awaited trial of a former South American dictator accused of a 1982 massacre began Friday with testimony from a member of the firing squad.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Could Ingrid Betancourt become Colombia's next president?

LONDON (AFP) - Ashwell Prince told South Africa cricket fans not to worry about the form of Graeme Smith after the Proteas captain's first, and possibly only, innings before next week's first Test against England saw him make just 35 against Middlesex here Friday.

HARARE (AFP) - A defiant Robert Mugabe ruled out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe's political crisis Friday unless they acknowledged his victory in a one-man presidential election.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia has demanded that South Africa explain why President Thabo Mbeki announced publicly that Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa had died, state television reported on Friday.

As of Friday, July 4, 2008, at least 468 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures June 28 at 10 a.m. EDT.

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (AFP) - Shane Watson kept his nerve, and the seventh-wicket pair of Denesh Ramdin and Darren Sammy failed to carry West Indies over the threshold, as Australia completed a thrilling one-run victory in the fourth One-day International on Friday.

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (AFP) - Andrew Symonds top scored with 87 and David Hussey supported with 50 to help Australia to a thrilling one-run win on Friday over West Indies in the fourth One-day International in St Kitts.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Announcing what it said were "essential milestones" allowing the world's largest leveraged buyout to go ahead, BCE Inc said on Friday that its buyers had finalized funding and were sticking to their C$34.8-billion ($34.1 billion) purchase price.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The number of vehicles imported into Canada from the United States in 2008 is well on pace to break last year's record high, according to data compiled by the North American Automobile Trade Association.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A powerful Canadian business group wants Prime Minister Stephen Harper to change his stance on agricultural trade to help achieve a breakthrough in the Doha Round of world trade talks.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia is one of the least religious nations in the western world, research showed Friday, as the country prepares to host Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic World Youth Day celebrations this month.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Morning rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most New Zealand cities Friday as truckers snarled highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to protest higher road taxes.

ADELAIDE, Australia - Alexander Downer announced Thursday he is quitting Australian politics following a career as the country's longest-serving foreign minister and one of its highest-profile leaders of the past decade.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 1,200 US troops serving in Iraq signed up for extended service in the military to mark America's national day on Friday.

PARIS - Arriving to a hero's welcome in France, Ingrid Betancourt said Friday that she cried a lot during her six years as a prisoner in the Colombian jungle. Today, she said, "I cry with joy."

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Nigeria. Rwanda. Uganda. Ethiopia. Gabon. Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe has plenty of competitors for the title of "least democratic in Africa."